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Industry
Qualcomm creates 'Thinkabit' lab for kids [VIDEO] (UT San Diego)
Welcome to Qualcomms Thinkabit Lab, a new hands-on classroom embedded in the San Diego tech companys sprawling headquarters thats attempting to do just that. Equal parts art studio and engineering lab, the facility is set to go live in the fall when it opens its doors to a steady stream of middle school students from throughout San Diego County. In the meantime, students from Roosevelt Middle School in San Diego are test-piloting the lab to help Qualcomm develop this latest twist on STEM education. How does a student aspire to something they dont know exists? asked Ed Hidalgo of Qualcomm, who is helping to launch the new education initiative.
GE funds UCONN engineering scholarship (CTnews)
GE engineer and University of Connecticut alumna Linda Jacobs, a winner of GEs Edison Award, is donating her $25,000 prize to create an endowed scholarship at UConns School of Engineering. With the fund, scholarships in the amount of approximately $1,000 will be awarded annually to a mechanical engineering student in perpetuity. Jacobs was one of 14 GE engineers around the world to earn the Edison Award, which are recognized throughout the company, for her contributions in advanced industrial circuit breaker technologies as well as her leadership in mentoring early career engineers selected to participate in GEs Edison Engineering Program.
Toyota helping to build skilled manufacturing workforce in San Antonio (San Antonio Business Journal)
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas Inc. and the San Antonio Manufacturers Association have formed a new workforce development initiative thats aimed preparing more young people for careers in manufacturing. The Japanese automaker, which has an assembly plant in San Antonio that builds Tundra and Tacoma trucks, will award six grants to SAMA for disbursement to manufacturing firms that agree to furnish internships to promising workers. Toyota is making a donation to the Alamo Academies Advanced Technology Manufacturing Academy. Toyota will fund six grants of $1,600 each. The grants will cover about half the cost of sponsoring an intern. 
Diversity in STEM
Scholarships aim for women, minorities in mechatronics (DNJ)
Middle Tennessee State University has received more than $600,000 in scholarship funds from the National Science Foundation to recruit minority and female engineering students. For the next three years, at least 15 incoming freshmen students will receive scholarship awards for up to $10,000. Scholarships are expected to average $5,800 when other scholarships such as HOPE lottery funds are factored in. Participation priority will be given to qualified female and minority applicants to meet the objective of increasing the percentage of these student populations.
5 things we learned about Silicon Valley culture from the Ellen Pao trial (Mashable)
After three years, Ellen Pao's long, difficult legal battle with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is finally at an end. And although Pao didn't get the outcome she'd hoped for, she seemed to take solace in the fact that she was able to tell her story salacious details and all to thousands of people around the world. For five weeks, Silicon Valley watched with rapt attention as the trial aired the normally cloistered inner workings of one of the tech industry's most powerful firms. Big-name power players who normally hide behind carefully crafted media messages were grilled by top-notch lawyers, as reporters gathered day after day to watch.
Higher Education
$37M neuroscience building a draw for Dayton health care (Dayton Business Journal)
Wright State University is close to finishing the $37 million Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration building it hopes will bring its research into a new era. The building, on the school's main campus, will host a grand opening next month, with construction expected to be complete in June. For the school, the building marks an all-new space focused on research work. It's a part of a growing partnership between Wright State and other major health care groups, including Premier Health, Dayton Children's Hospital and the 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
FAMU Hosts STEM Day to Encourage Interests in Science and Technology (WTXL)
Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University's College of Science and Technology held their 2nd Annual STEM Day Saturday. This year's theme was "FAMU CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Crime scenes were used to give students hand-on problem solving experience. An attendee explained the benefits of the event. "We have different breakout sessions, guest speakers in chemistry, math, physics and engineering. We also have concurrent sessions for students to learn about going into these different areas what are the different career choices they have," Judi Mandrell. The event was catered to students in Kindergarten through 12th grade.
Science Centers
Kansas Children's Discovery Center forms partnership with engineering firm, local schools (Topeka Capital-Journal)
Laying a foundation for future engineers and aligning Common Core standards is the objective of a new partnership among the Kansas Childrens Discovery Center, a Topeka engineering firm and local school district curriculum directors. What do engineers do? was the question posed by Becky Mercader, staff scientist at the Kansas Childrens Discovery Center, or KCDC, to an energetic group of fifth-graders on a recent field trip the interactive facility. The 70 estimated Tecumseh South and Shawnee Heights Elementary School students were taking part in a pilot project that engineering firm Bartlett & West has launched with the KCDC to integrate Common Cores STEM concepts into area elementary schools curriculums.
STEM Competitions
STEM learning takes root at Cal U Science Olympiad (Pittsburgh Tribune)
Ringgold Middle School students Adam Fogle and Delaney Fox were shooting off water-filled soda bottle rockets under 50 pounds per square inch of pressure at California University of Pennsylvania, but it was all in the spirit of competition and learning. Standing in front of Cal U's Convocation Center, Fogle, an eighth-grader, and Fox, a seventh-grader, were shooting their creations into the sky as part of the 2015 Science Olympiad at Cal U competition on March 18. The two 13-year-olds among 15 members of the Ringgold Middle School team and were joined by 15 Ringgold High School students forming two of the 48 teams consisting of more than 650 high school and middle school students from more than two dozen Southwestern Pennsylvania school districts competing in the Science Olympiad.
Iowa
Evolution, climate change spark concerns in Iowa science standards (Quad City Times)
State Board of Education members and some members of the public are expressing concerns with including evolution and climate change in new science standards being considered for Iowas public schools. A team of science education leaders from across the state is determining science education standards for Iowa students. The standards are a list of science-based knowledge and skills that public-school K-12 students will be expected to possess. The state Board of Education has charged a review team with developing the standards. The team is working off the Next Generation Science Standards, a national program developed in 2013 in conjunction with 26 states, including Iowa, and multiple national education organizations.
Iowa kicks off science, math conference (Quad City Times)
Gov. Terry Branstad on Monday hailed Iowa's efforts to promote science, technology, engineering and math education to its young people as a public-private success story that will pay dividends for years to come. Branstad told nearly 600 participants at a statewide science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, summit that the effort that started in July 2011 was intended to elevate the importance of STEM courses and their potential for Iowa's economic development and "you have done just that." "I am proud that the STEM Council is set to break records for the number of participating educators and students next school year," Branstad said.
Montana
High school science education leads discussion (Montana Standard)
A meeting about funding small restoration projects turned into a larger, impassioned discussion about science education in Butte high schools this week. The Butte Natural Resource Damage Restoration Council met Wednesday to hear 10 presentations on the projects that ranged in cost from $4,420 to $100,000. The council will recommend which projects to fund on March 25. Gov. Steve Bullock makes the final funding decisions. Rayelynn Connole, executive director for Clark Fork Watershed Education Program, had also submitted a proposal, but Natural Resource Damage Program staff determined that the educational program for seventh graders in Butte cannot apply. |
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New Partnership Enables Chicagoland Boy Scouts and Explorers to Send Research Projects to International Space Station
 Chicagoland Boy Scouts and Explorers will soon design and build research projects for a chance to have their experiment flown to the International Space Station. This incredible opportunity is the result of a newly formed partnership between the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which manages the U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS); and local Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and Exploring programs. CASIS and the BSA Pathways to Adventure Council will launch the Space Station National Design Challenge student research competition in Chicago this spring in an effort to spark interest and innovation in young men and women in [STEM]. Space Station National Design Challenge participants will work in teams of 10-20 young men and women to conceptualize and execute their experiments, which must fit into miniature labs about half the size of a shoebox.
Dean Kamen (a.k.a Modern-Day Edison): Just One of the Noted Inventors Youll Meet at X-STEM Symposium!
 Besides founding the amazing robotics outreach movement known as FIRST, he's sometimes called a modern-day Edison for the sheer number and impact of his inventions -- which range from the Segway human transporter and revolutionary robotic prosthetic arm to the iBOT battery-powered wheelchair. Get ready to engage one-on-one with Dean Kamen at the USA Science & Engineering Festivals X-STEM Symposium, an unforgettable all-day experience in April with some of the most fascinating visionaries in STEM! Tickets are limited and going fast -- so get yours TODAY!
Million Women Mentors Launches New Web-Portal Technology to Elevate Women and Girls in STEM - 250,000 Have Pledged to Mentor
 Million Women Mentors (MWM) announces the release of the new portal at MillionWomenMentors.org, powered by Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS), as well as the release of the MWM State of the States Report highlighting the first 29 states with our-year pledges and their strong leadership in MWM (Find the report on the web site under the Resource Section). The MWM movement will support girls and women in STEM through mentorship. The MWM team announced that over 250,000 pledges are committed since the launch January, 2014. The goal of the four year movement is to garner one million mentors (men and women) in STEM professions, to collectively increase the interest and confidence of girls and women in these high-demand and well-paying careers. The news is that 29 states that have made STEM mentor commitments along with major corporations and other organizations like Science Olympiad, National Girls Collaborative Project and The National 4-H Council. |
